


The Towers

by HunnyBop



Series: Original Stuff [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 17:12:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4969423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HunnyBop/pseuds/HunnyBop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A piece from my english class where we had to write a story based on a line of poetry</p>
<p>My story follows a firefighter who went into the north tower on 9/11.</p>
<p>The line was "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks" from Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum Est</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Towers

A harsh, penetrating ring of the bell roused me. I glanced at the clock it was ten to nine in the morning. Like a caterpillar, I wriggled into my uniform before I hurried into the vehicle bay. The station commander was standing there.

His voice was grave with concern and worry as he spoke “I have received an incoming report that a plane has hit One World Trade Centre, our responsibility is to go into that tower and evacuate people”.

Trembling, I climbed into the fire engine, it pulled away. On the drive to WTC one my mind was racing; how could a plane impact the tower? Systems were in place to prevent that. A blood chilling thought filled my mind; the collision may not have been an accident. The equipment I carried seemed even heavier when I saw the gaping hole left in the buildings side.

 

The dust was thick around me as I climbed past the frightened workers. The stairs themselves were slippery with god knows what. All I was thinking was that I had to get the people trapped on the floors above to safety. However I had one burning question. What sort of plane could have punched such a great hole into the side of the tower?

Beneath me, I could hear my colleagues combing the floors for people, their calls were becoming more distant as I climbed higher and higher; I had to head to the ninety first floor and evacuate anyone I found, as those were my orders. When I reached the floor I had to drop to the ground to avoid the toxic, black smoke that filled the air. Crawling forwards I kept one hand in front of me, feeling for anyone. I glanced at my watch, five past nine… I’d been in the tower for only ten minutes but I already wanted to flee; the smoke and heat made it feel like my own personal hell. Steeling myself, I took a deep breath, thinking of the people trapped inside.

A pale light glowed ahead of me. As I scuttled towards it, the air became clearer until I was staring out of the north face of the tower… The south tower was visible, a shining beacon of normality that strongly contrasted with the hell and death that surrounded me. Suddenly the side of the south tower exploded in another fireball. Mind racing I crouched there. What had just happened? Another plane? A bomb?

The crackling of static greeted me when I raised my radio to my mouth to report what had happened but. Sighing I turned away from the horrific sight of people throwing themselves from the south tower; Inching back into the haze like a worm, looking for people to rescue.

A while passed and my hand touched something soft and flaky, I looked closer and recoiled in disgust; it was a young woman’s leg, she’d been roasted by the extreme heat of the fireball. I carefully made my way up to her face and brushed her eyes closed. The building felt much darker now.  Slowly I made my way towards the stairs, I’d swept the floor and found only corpses and shards of metal. My dusty clock showed the time as twenty past ten; had I only been in the tower for an hour and a half? To me it felt like an eternity passed.

A crackle from my radio caused me to jump and I could faintly make out the voice of my commander ordering us to pull back, which tower was he talking about? The warning gave me new energy and I hurried towards the stairs; reaching them I barely stopped, just long enough to stand up. I’d only gone down four floors when I heard a rumbling from above me and chunks of plaster fell around me. The tower was collapsing. The world faded to a midnight black as a chunk of the floor above struck me; sending me pitching over the hand rail and downwards.

 


End file.
